American Rodeo Portfolio
Giclee prints on archival water color paper
Celebrating the American Rodeo
BOBBY BROWN
While Clothes Often "Make The Man", Bobby Brown was The Real Deal - 110% American Cowboy Before He Got Dressed
About Bobby Brown: As the story goes, Bobby Brown was traveling in 1982 with Cody Lambert an up-and-coming impressionable young rodeo athlete.
Lambert was only a few years into a career that continues today as livestock director of the PBR, while Brown, who was in his 30s at the time, was nearing the end of his.
The two were in Greeley, Colo., headed to St. Paul, Ore., when bad weather conditions forced Brown to land his single-engine plane in Salt Lake City. It was then that Lambert learned a lesson he carried with him until he retired from riding in 1996.
The forecast indicated that there was no way they were going to be able to continue in Brown's small plane, so they checked with the airlines - there were two first-class tickets available on the next flight to Portland, but the $600 or $700 price was steep even by today's standards. Lambert was recently married and short on money, so he told Brown, "There's no way I can go."
Brown, who qualified for the National Finals Rodeo more than a dozen times, and had been runner-up for the world title in saddle bronc riding a year earlier, wouldn't take no for an answer.
He explained that Lambert had one of the best horses in the draw - one with which he could win - and that he could not afford to miss the event. So, Lambert thinks about Bobby Brown, a true American Cowboy.
Lambert went.
"I felt sick paying for that ticket on my credit card," recalled Lambert, who maxed out the card, and who didn't even plan to spend that much for fuel costs during the entire Fourth of July run.
He wound up winning. Brown took second.
"When you draw those good ones, you make sure you're there to get on them," was the lesson Brown shared with Lambert.
To this day, every time Lambert looks at that St. Paul buckle, he thinks about the trip and what it took to get there.